InTune - Customise the Finder Sidebar

[JSpaced]

Hey guys,

My Google-fu is failing me and I don't actually know a lot about Macs. We got told we HAD to have them and now they're comfortably eating up two or three times the support time of any other suite in the school.

 

We can't get Single-Sign On for Office Apps to work.

We can't get the OneDrive client to single sign on when students sign in.

We can't get the Adobe Creative Cloud to single sign on when students sign in.

 

So at the moment a student signs in with their password a minimum of four times. (Not counting all the "bonk - you wrote that wrong" sounds. That little dull note makes me grind my teeth now.)

 

I'm looking for a solution to stop the students from saving to /users/username/documents/ because they've usually given up on the third "bonk" noise and just saved to the Mac's local harddrive. So now the Harddrives are rammed with Photoshop and Sibelius compositions.

 

I want to hide documents folder from finder AND from Finder's sidebar, but I don't know where to start.

 

Also I hate the Macs, with a passion, and I find myself unconsciously resisting learning more about them.

 

I mean: I'm also having trouble packaging Adobe Apps for the Macs and the only discovered solution is: Package the Package and sign the Package with an Apple Developer Certificate that you somehow paid for and acquired. I'm not joking when I say they are causing me stress. I don't want to package the package. I want it to install the package.

 

But anyway: Finder customising for all users on login? How? Please? Pretty please?

[JSpaced]

Update - we may have got Single-Sign On to work on OneDrive.

[Olliekai]

Don't suppose you'd be happy to share how you did it? Intune Macs are my bane atm. 

[JSpaced]

On 27/02/2026 at 12:11, Olliekai said:

Don't suppose you'd be happy to share how you did it? Intune Macs are my bane atm. 

 

Ultimately we spent EVEN MORE money and bought Jamf, which helped us dramatically. It's still the IT suite we spend most of the time in. More than any other in the two schools I look after.

 

Other issues that came since then:

 

• Any student signing in will automatically eat 1GB of the Hard disk before they do anything.
• Adobe Scratch disks will consume whatever is left of the hard disk until the entire computer stops working
• Mobile profiles created in concert with Intune/ Entra sign ins will corrupt randomly for no reason and require deletion
• Regular complete wiping and rebuilding of the Macs is required to keep them in a state approaching working.
• You need: hard disk space to download the iOS update + hard disk space to unpack the update + hard disk space to install the update + hard disk space to accomodate the failed downloads from the first step.
• It is extremely hard to turn off just the bit you want to turn off on a Mac, even if you have Jamf helping you.
• If a user forgets their password, they will need help on the Mac because the keychain will demand the original forgotten password, even after Intune confirms and changes the new temporary password.

Honestly I think we only have CCTV in the Mac suite to stop me destroying them all. This summer we are replacing with Windows.

[Olliekai]

8 hours ago, JSpaced said:

 

Ultimately we spent EVEN MORE money and bought Jamf, which helped us dramatically. It's still the IT suite we spend most of the time in. More than any other in the two schools I look after.

 

Other issues that came since then:

 

• Any student signing in will automatically eat 1GB of the Hard disk before they do anything.
• Adobe Scratch disks will consume whatever is left of the hard disk until the entire computer stops working
• Mobile profiles created in concert with Intune/ Entra sign ins will corrupt randomly for no reason and require deletion
• Regular complete wiping and rebuilding of the Macs is required to keep them in a state approaching working.
• You need: hard disk space to download the iOS update + hard disk space to unpack the update + hard disk space to install the update + hard disk space to accomodate the failed downloads from the first step.
• It is extremely hard to turn off just the bit you want to turn off on a Mac, even if you have Jamf helping you.
• If a user forgets their password, they will need help on the Mac because the keychain will demand the original forgotten password, even after Intune confirms and changes the new temporary password.

Honestly I think we only have CCTV in the Mac suite to stop me destroying them all. This summer we are replacing with Windows.

Damn that sounds scary

 

[Brimstone]

So you know nothing about Macs, did you get any technical training on Jamf or macOS?

 

Sounds like your school just bought Macs without any in depth project managment or advice beforehand, if Jamf MDM was afterthought once you has these problems.

 

How to configure SSO on macOS from Intune...

https://www.intunemacadmins.com/complete-guide-macos-deployment/configure_macos_platform_sso/

 

Configure Adobe pkg's to macOS

https://dazwallace.wordpress.com/2022/11/06/recommended-workflow-to-deploy-adobe-software-with-jamf-pro/

 

 

macOS has never worked with "mobile accounts" so don't even bother trying to configure these.; If you are using creative video, music and Adobe apps do not expect users to be able to work across a network drive, this will just cause problems. Users should be working locally on projects then saving them to either a local network share or OneDrive.

 

Macs are neither scary or time consuming to manage when you have the right training and tools in place, I have institutions managing thousands of macs who spend less than a hour a week on them.

Edited March 17 by Brimstone